OH! Press Picks: Upcoming Anime of 2018

With 2018 in full swing, anime lovers everywhere can anticipate new and upcoming anime ahead. You can expect your favourite shows to return with a new season, OVA, or movie, or possibly even get curious about new anime. Spring alone heralds the return of seasonal anime such as Tokyo Ghoul and movies like Ninja Batman. You may refer to these anime watchlists (Spring/Summer/Fall) to look out for any of your favourite shows. Now, my fellow writers, Rinne, and Sakura Harano, and I are here to talk about anime we’re really, really excited about!

Broadcast

Boku no Hero Academia Season 3

Tokyo Ghoul:re

Shingeki no Kyojin Season 3

Persona 5 The Animation

Steins;Gate 0

Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online

Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashi

Food Wars Season 3

Amanchu Season 2

Lostorage Conflated WIXOSS

Back Street Girls

Hanebado!

Hataraku Saibou

Free! Iwatobi Swim Club Season 3

Rinne

The list above is subject to change obviously. Sometimes anime studios opt for late announcement. From the list, I would like to briefly (yeah right) talk about some of them. New season, new adventure. It is only natural for me as an omnipotent weeb to continue watching my favorite characters in new seasons of Boku no Hero Academia, Tokyo Ghoul:re, and Shingeki no Kyojin.

I started off as a fan of shounen anime before slowly drifting away from it due to a shift of perspectives from childhood to adulthood (supposedly I would add teenhood in between those but my taste during that time was rather embarrassing so let’s skip that one). Boku no Hero Academia (release date: April 7) rejuvenated my love for the genre. Kind of. The anime however still doesn’t give me the same feels as Naruto did but surely I should start getting emotional soon after getting hooked up with some forced drama or cheap shock value. Same old recipe but we still eat KFC chicken, right?

Though it is not the same case for Tokyo Ghoul:re (release date: April). I’ve watched the prequels and thoroughly enjoyed the first one but Root is rather a snoozefest. So why not waste some of my time again with :re? We all need a telenovela in our life but this time with edgy ghouls. Oh, hopefully we can see Ken Kaneki and Touka Kirishima copulate in Bluray quality (then watch them just grind against each other with transition shots from every angle and then skipped to the next morning – sun first). I’m not deep into the manga but I think [SPOILER ALERT] they are now husband and wife? I don’t know but even if I spoiled the story for you all, it’s nothing game-breaking.

Out of these three continuing anime, Boku no Hero Academia, Tokyo Ghoul, and Shingeki no Kyojin, I anticipate Shingeki no Kyojin (release date: July) the most. I simply love everything about it except for both Eren and Mikasa being constantly annoying. Especially Mikasa. This is what you call game-breaking. How the both of them are still virgins and not losing it together is beyond me. Anyways. In a sense – bar the Titans – the anime is pretty realistic for me. Their ideologies, the philosophies, humanism, conflicts, and et cetera. Those are all closely related to our world. It keeps you on the edge of your seat.

And if you are like me, that seat will get wet every time Levi makes his fabulous and sexy appearance. That sexy face, that sexy look. Levi is most probably the most famous midget 2D character to have ever graced the industry. This beautiful specimen is everything that you can ask for in anime. Sometimes he spins like a Beyblade (or bae-blade if you catch my drift, yum~) while slashing them Titans. Sometimes he’s graceful enough to spin like a fidget spinner. Most importantly, he remains clean. Whew, what was I talking about again?

There are many new and upcoming anime for us to watch in 2018 but only some of it truly grabbed my attention. Assuming you have yet to play Persona 5 (release date: April) or in no position to play it (like not having the necessary rig to play it), rest assured that Aniplex got you covered. And of course, they’ve added “The Animation” into the title just to make sure we know it’s an anime. I’ve played it and I feel like watching the show regardless because I love Persona/Shin Megami Tensei series in general. Still, Persona 4 Golden remains as my favorite of the bunch and I’m not talking about the anime adaptation. P/s: All Persona anime so far are trash but the English dubs are terrific.

Another upcoming show adapted from a game (in this case, a visual novel) is Steins;Gate 0 (release date: April). The series, as you all may already know, had one visual novel being adapted (of the same name) into an anime and it was a total ride. I need to watch it again and again just to get a lick of the premise. But it was great and I feel like a smarter person after that. No kidding. Post anime depression forced me to play Steins; Gate 0 and to no surprise, it wasn’t anything remarkable. The show is most probably going to be condensed into 12-13 episodes and guys, get ready for another trainwreck.

I have never been a fan of the Sword Art Online series but I forced myself to power through all of it. Every single one of it except for shitty specials. Apart from the movie (Ordinal Scale), I enjoyed watching the first cour of season 2 where we get to see Kirito (or rather “Kazuto”) on an adventure in a game called Gun Gale Online with a newly introduced female character Sinon (my one and only favorite character in SAO). All the shootings and bullet-deflecting are fun to watch. Of course, I skipped everything else after that.

Now, the game itself is getting an anime spin-off. The full title is Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online (release date: April 11). Oh man, that sounds awesome. The best thing about it is that I am most probably not going to see the same old boring and arduous-to-watch characters like Asuna and the rest of the original harem (trying my best to exclude Sinon from the forgettable bunch). But sadly, we won’t get to see Sinon or Kirito or any of your favorite characters here. It’s not that sad of course, I was just exaggerating. This is a spin-off after all. It doesn’t make any sense to have the same characters in an alternative story. I’ve seen the characters introduced so far and lots of it are crap-looking. I don’t know. It’s better to watch the show first before I can judge even further.

Enough with that, let’s talk about interesting anime adapted from manga that went unnoticed because of popular series hogging all the attention. I’m not sure if I possess a precognition ability or a psychic power but somehow lots of the unknown manga that I’ve read in the past or currently reading are being adapted into anime. Without a shadow of a doubt, most of them will be outright thrown into dumpster tier but some may be good. I believe Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashi (release date: April) can become one of ‘those’ anime that may surprise the industry this year with its uniqueness (sort of, don’t kill me isekai fans).

Honestly, at this point, I just want to watch something new and I am always soft on romance. Romance in isekai is horrible and not feasible. I hate them. With Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashi, hopefully, the show will make anyone believe in love once again and that it can happen between friends and best buddies. Love transcends all boundaries. In this case, it’s between two close friends. Both are otaku but one of them tries to hide it while the other one doesn’t, and they work in the same place. It’s cute and even their friends have their own rom-com going around, not leaving other characters for dead like most romance series always do. I would recommend you all to read it. Sometimes it is nice to get diabetes for a change after constantly suffering from high blood pressure while reading/watching edge-fest stuff.

You might wonder why I included Back Street Girls (release date: July) on the list. The manga has quite a reputation for being… weird. First and foremost, I like comedy. Back Street Girls is a new take on comedy — at least for me. The premise is about three failed yakuza that opted for sex reassignment surgery to avoid committing seppuku (they are given those two as options). Then, as cute girls, they are trained to become idols. Well, there you go. You get the gist of it. One thing that I can ensure you is that their reactions are hilarious and some of their remarks are gold. Read the manga if you’re interested. It might not be your cup of tea but it’s worth a go. You can mock me in the comment section down below later on.

Hanebado! (release date: July), on the other hand, is a manga about sports and I picked it up because it is simply about badminton, one of my favorite sports. I’m not a fan of sports anime because lots of it are never really about the sport itself. Anyways, the art looks really nice and the actions are slick. The art gradually gets better in the manga so I really hope the anime won’t butcher the designs with generic-looking anime characters (like those of Kyoto Animation over the years) and settings.

What about Hataraku Saibou (release date: July)? The manga tells a story of you. Yes, you. The one reading this article right now. Not literally but biologically. The characters are the cells in your body and the story varies from their works, their organizations, white blood cells, red blood cells, so on and so forth. Basically the life of cells in your body. The premise is super cute and creative and I am already loving the artworks in the manga. The anthropomorphic anime adaptation better does the manga justice or I will riot in front of Aniplex studio.

Mogwai

Unlike Rinne, my upcoming anime watchlist is comparatively sparse, and the anime season I look forward to the most isn’t spring. I didn’t like the extreme bore-fest that was Tokyo Ghoul’s second season at all either (who did, really?), but still, I’m kind of curious about Tokyo Ghoul:re. Let’s see if they’re able to undo such an unfortunate waste of fantastic character design this April. Even prior to watching the anime, I’ve always been intrigued by the artwork in Tokyo Ghoul, only to end up feeling awfully disappointed by season 2. I haven’t read the manga at all so I have low expectations, but I continue to hope for more Uta-san against all odds.

What I’m truly looking forward to is summer. Because I’m going to be extremely embarrassing when season 3 of Free! Iwatobi Swim Club (release date: July 5) is finally here. Back when it first came out in 2013, I was one of those girls on Tumblr eating up all the blatant fanservice like no tomorrow. Matsuoka Rin was my favourite back in the day. And then… I forgot all about it afterwards. Frankly, I only watched Free! Eternal Summer this year. You see, Free! Iwatobi Swim Club is like a bag of potato chips — the most unhealthy one you can think of. It’s got disgraceful nutritional value but it just tastes so good, you know? So, I abandoned it, thinking I could finally put that shame behind me. Live a healthier life.

But the joke’s on me because I watched it on a whim this year and ended up falling in love with Yamazaki Sousuke and his soft smiles whenever he looked at Rin! The number of tears I wept for Sousuke…

And okay, I know that with the way season 2 ended, Free! didn’t need a season 3. The franchise already has several short episodes, OVAs, as well as movies out, too. There’s really no need to drag it out anymore. But honestly, I’m extremely thirsty for more Sousuke and Rin, especially Sousuke. I want to know which road Sousuke takes, given what happened to him in Eternal Summer. All we know now is that season 3 will be a sequel to Take Your Marks, but what does that mean, KyoAni? What does the future hold for Sousuke Yamazaki? More soft smiles? More coaching? Just give me more Sousuke, KyoAni, and please make him smile. I’m really not asking for much, the bar is extremely low.

In other non-Free! News, I used to be an avid reader of the original Shingeki No Kyojin (also known as Attack on Titan) manga and ragequit it, so I doubt I’m going to pick it up this time. I know I said the same thing about Free! but I mean it this time, alright?

Sakura

For me, what I’m looking forward to the most is my favorite returning series. The Spring simulcast season, in particular, brings back a lot of second seasons from series like Tokyo Ghoul, Food Wars, Amanchu, and WIXOSS.

I’m on the fence on whether to watch Tokyo Ghoul or not because of lost interests since the last series aired, and I’m hoping that Studio Pierrot doesn’t mess this up somehow. Now for Food Wars (release date: April 9), this is actually the second part of season 3 since they split it into 12 episodes each. I’m more excited about this since they left it with a huge cliffhanger about Soma revealing that his dad is Joichiro to Azami, Erina’s father. I enjoyed the first season of Amanchu (release date: April); it was a slice-of-life and was pretty relaxing to watch, similar to the series Flying Witch. Based on the trailer, it seems like there’s going to be a lot more adventures and obstacles so I’m looking forward to seeing how Hikari and Futaba tackle it because there’s not that much character development in the first season.

Now my most anticipated series is Lostorage Conflated WIXOSS (release date: April 6). It’s been over a year since the first season (this will be the 4th season overall in the WIXOSS franchise). The characters in the first two season are different from the third season although they share the same realm. But what’s exciting about this new season is that we’ll be seeing old characters coming back! One series I’m eyeing at the moment that isn’t a sequel is Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashii. I don’t know why but when I first saw the trailer, Narumi kinda reminded me of an older version of Sakura from Nozaki-kun. I’m looking forward to the comedy and romance!

Movies and OVA/OAD/Special Episodes

Liz to Aoi Tori

Batman Ninja

Kimi no Suizou wo Tabetai

Masamune-kun no Revenge

Rinne

As a fan of Masamune-kun no Revenge (release date: July 27) – the announcement of new OVA has got me excited. The manga is about to end soon so I hope the OVAs (plural not singular because one OVA is really asking for a spanking from me) will cover the rest of the volumes. Maybe enough to cover the ending, which I doubt but it’s good to be optimistic sometimes.

Apart from television broadcasted anime, I also have several anime movies waiting in my watchlist. One of it is Liz to Aoi Tori (release date: April 21), simply because of its hype. I could’ve Googled everything but I want to keep it a mystery for my self-satisfaction while watching it. I heard that it is related to Hibike! Euphonium and no don’t tell me if I am spot on or not. I have yet to watch that anime so it’s a plus for my evil plan of getting pleasures from the unknown.

Next is Batman Ninja (release date: April 24). Yes, Japanese ninja and the Caped Crusader from DC Comics himself. A fusion of two iconic characters in the film industry. Though most importantly, it is an anime movie. From the trailers, the studio in charge decided to use 3D CGI for the movie and that gave me mixed feelings. Most, trust me most 3D CGI anime look like utter shit. Cue Berserk as the most famous example. So far, I think it looks okay but not something that I will enjoy watching unless the story triumphs over the seizure-inducing graphics. I still love you, Batman. You are my favorite superhero after all.

Last but not least, a story that we all need to encapsulate with to get a slap of reality once in a while is getting an anime movie adaptation. Introducing Kimi no Suizou wo Tabetai (release date: Fall 2018). Fans of Japanese television drama or movies might’ve heard about it or even watched it. The novel has been adapted into manga and a live-action movie — both are amazing in their own ways.

I’m not going to say anything about the story because any sort of summaries or synopses will not be spoiler-free. Restrain yourself from reading any kind of snippets about the series. I would suggest that once the movie is out, watch it without knowing what is it about. I did that with the live action movie and the experience I had while watching it was priceless. For now, just add it to your watchlist and leave it untouched. A hint: it’s a tearjerker and now you know why I recommended you all to do as suggested above.

Mogwai

I’m also a pretty big fan of Batman and the Batfamily (with a specific interest in Tim Drake and how he continues to deserve better), so of course, I’m interested in Batman Ninja. All I have to say about that is that they better do my fictional son Tim Drake (aka Red Robin) justice. Thus far, I appreciate most of the character designs and am particularly pleased by Damian Wayne’s tragic look. My only gripe would be that it appears to lack my best girl Cassandra Cain (also currently known as Orphan in Rebirth). You’d think they’d include arguably the only one in the team capable of beating Batman in one-on-one combat. Check out the rest of the cast here.

So yes, all three of us will be checking out Tokyo Ghoul: re in spite of our doubts and disappointment in the second season. Maybe we’re just glutton for punishment, maybe we have nothing else better to do. Also, Rinne and I will be checking out Batman Ninja, while she and Sakura Harano will be watching Wotaku ni Koi wa Muzukashi as well as attacking Titans on Shingeki No Kyojin. Will you be tuning in to any of these, or are we sleeping on any shows you’re personally looking forward to? Drag our tastes in the comments. Talk to me about Sousuke Yamazaki and his amazing animated muscles.